


Headspace

by AXEe



Series: Head Games [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Amnesia, Daxamites, F/F, F/M, Justice League (mentioned) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2018-10-09 04:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10403736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe
Summary: Alex wakes up at the DEO with a pounding headache and three cracked ribs, the last thing she remembers is Astra telling her about the Black Mercy.  So why is Astra running around free at the DEO? And why does Kara look older?





	1. Yellow Brick Road

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was one of my early attempts at Supergirl fanfiction and was written before I wrote Part One of What we are, and would actually become "Family Matters" and, in part, "Strange Visitor", it's been sitting on my hard drive for over a year now so I decided to finally post it, enjoy

******

It was too bright, and why did everything _hurt_? Was this how it felt after pulling Kara free of the Black Mercy? Was Kara out? Was she OK?

“Alex, hey, hey, take it easy” a voice said, that wasn’t Kara, who was it? Damn it! If she could only get her eyes to fucking _focus_. Slowly, the blurry, watery image of a dark-haired woman swam into view, well that wasn’t Kara, who…oh, Vasquez, OK, that was good, Vasquez was good

“Wha--” she tried to speak, to ask about Kara

“Easy,” Vasquez (what the hell was her first name, anyway? Oh, right, Susan) soothed “here’s some water,” Susan said holding out a plastic cup with a bendy straw “easy, slow sips,” she warned as she put the straw to Alex’s lips “the last thing we need is for you to choke” once Alex had drained about half the cup she pulled away and tried talking again

“Wha-what happened?” hey! A full two words! She thought giddily

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Susan asked

“Uh…Kara…the Black Mercy!” she tried to sit up “where is she?! Where’s…ohh!” a wave of dizziness hit her suddenly and she flopped back against the pillow trying to get the room to stop spinning

“Hey, hey, relax,” Susan said, gripping her shoulders to keep her still “Kara’s fine, she’s out helping clean up a pileup on the highway right now, although she’s probably on her way here” as if on cue there was woosh of air and a red-blue blur suddenly shot into the room, materializing into a frazzled-looking Kara

“Alex! You’re awake!” and suddenly Alex was pulled into a dizzying, rib-crushing, limpet-like Kara-hug

“Uh, apparently,” she muttered “oh, ow! Kara! My ribs! My ribs!” Kara backed off instantly, apologizing, Alex winced as the familiar pain of a cracked rib suddenly registered, she turned to tell Kara to stop apologizing when she noticed something, Kara, and Susan, both looked…different, older, even “uh, what happened to you two?” Alex asked, both of them frowned

“Uh, Alex…,” Kara began “do you know what today’s date is?” she asked

“Uh, no,” Alex answered “geez, how long was I out?”

“Not…too long,” Susan answered hesitantly “how about the year? Do what year it is?”

“2016,” Alex answered automatically, both Kara and Susan suddenly exchanged worried glances, and Alex got a sinking feeling her gut “it _is_ 2016…right?” she asked, Kara shook her head sadly

“No” she answered, Alex gulped and told herself not to panic, OK so she missed a year, that wasn’t too bad she told herself

“Then what year is it?” she asked, Kara sighed

“2026” she answered

******

Ten hours. That’s how long Alex had been unconscious apparently according to Kara, after a DEO raid had gone bad and some alien criminal decided to play soccer with her head, ten hours

Ten years. That was how much she’d forgotten. An entire decade of her life was now just…gone

“You’re sure?” she asked Kara, the girl…well, woman now, she supposed…nodded quietly, looking like she wanted to cry, Alex couldn’t exactly blame her, but she still couldn’t bare to see her little sister cry “well, you look good for forty” she joked, Kara squawked indigently

“I’m thirty-four!” she proclaimed, then grinned shyly as she realized what Alex was doing “now, you,” she said “you do look very good for forty”

“Gee, thanks,” she muttered, throwing a wadded up paper napkin at Kara’s head “seriously, though,” she added “you do look good” and Kara did actually, her hair was a little darker, her face a little fuller, her body a little curvier than Alex remembered, had she had kids? Alex suddenly wondered, she was about to ask when Dr. Hamilton came over

“Well, Agent Danvers,” she began “as strange as this may sound, you’re otherwise as healthy as a horse”

“Despite the amnesia you mean?” Alex pointed out, Dr. Hamilton nodded

“Despite the amnesia,” she agreed “I’m going to release you, but the Director’ll have to sign off on whether or not you’ll be cleared for active field duty”

“So, what do we do about the amnesia?” Kara asked

“I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do,” Dr. Hamilton explained “in cases like these some patients regain their full memories, it just takes time, sometimes months or even years, other times they only regain partial memories, and sometimes never,” she signed the tablet PC in her hands and shrugged helplessly “I really can’t say, I’m sorry” Alex sighed as she grabbed her clothes from Kara

“Well, I guess you’ll just have to fill me in” she told Kara, Kara grinned

“I’ll be sure to keep in the embarrassing parts” she promised

“Thanks. I feel so much better”

******

After getting dressed and being ordered by Dr. Hamilton to avoid any strenuous activities (“including anything fun” the doctor had added) Alex, with Kara’s help, managed to walk/limp/hobble her way to Command, she knew she should probably go home and rest but according to Kara the thing that had knocked her brain around was still out there.

As they slowly made their way to Command, Kara tried to fill her in on the last ten years, apparently Astra had agreed to come into the DEO in order to help free Kara from the Black Mercy, which had involved both she and Alex actually going inside Kara’s mind to free her, in exchange Astra had given the DEO information on her ultimate goal, a mind control system called ‘myriad’ which had allowed the DEO to build devices to block the signal and later stage an all-out assault on Fort Rozz, with Astra and Supergirl leading the charge. The battle had ended in Non being killed by Astra, Kara actually flying Fort Rozz up into space, and Alex rescuing her with her own pod.

After that they had encountered a lone surviving guard from Fort Rozz who was systematically killing off the prison’s escapees and nearly killed Astra before Kara and Alex stopped him, after that they then faced down a living alien computer calling herself ‘Indigo’ who tried to nuke National City, then Kara was exposed to a synthetic version of kryptonite created by Maxwell Lord and subsequently went on a rampage across the city, only to be stopped by Astra and J’onn who exposed himself as a Martian in order to stop Kara, resulting in General Lane and someone named ‘Colonel James Harper’ launching a proverbial witch-hunt of the DEO, which nearly lead to Astra, J’onn, and Alex herself being dragged off to some secret government lab called ‘Project Cadmus’ where aliens were experimented on to create living weapons, only to be saved by Kara and Lucy Lane, who Kara had told her secret to in order get her to help free Astra, Alex, and J’onn.

Lucy was later made Acting Director of the DEO and had helped Alex, Astra, and J’onn go on the run and shut Cadmus down, the embarrassment and public scandal of having Cadmus’ atrocities being exposed to the world apparently caused the government to drop any and all charges against Astra and J’onn and Alex being reinstated as a DEO agent, J’onn, however, resigned as Director of the DEO a few years later to become a founding member of something called the ‘Justice League’ along with Superman and Wonder Woman and some vigilante from Gotham that Alex had never heard of, and which Kara was a reserve member. Maxwell Lord, Alex was pleased to learn was now serving over a dozen consecutive life-sentences for various crimes after Winn hacked his files and anonymously posted them to CatCo’s servers, baring all the man’s dirty secrets to the world.

“So, if J’onn’s resigned who’s the Director now?” she asked as they finally entered Command

“She is” Kara pointed, Alex had to admit that her jaw dropped as the woman in the center of the room turned around

“Astra?” the former general, now clad in DEO black, turned and smiled softly at Alex

“Nice to see that you’re up and about, Agent Danvers,” she said “and actually, it’s ‘director’ now” she explained

"You're, you're, you're the director of the DEO?!" Alex squeaked

"I am," Astra nodded "I have been for the past eight years," she frowned at Alex "you don't remember that, do you?" Alex shook her head "then I suppose you don't remember that I was offered membership into the DEO after we defeated Non and shut down Myriad?" Alex shook her head again, noticing how sad Astra looked all of a sudden

"Director In-ze!" an agent suddenly called out "alien attack in progress, National City Botanical Gardens, subject is a Kilgori"

"All right!" Astra barked "full strike teams now, on the double!!" she paused and glanced at Alex, sighing "come on!" she snarled "gear up, Agent Danvers"


	2. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex finds out that she forgot much more than just Astra becoming head of the DEO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Update time! When I first started writing this Chapter One was all I managed to complete before I moved onto to what would become What we are, so this chapter and the rest of the story is mostly reconstructed from memory with a little imagination thrown in, for example, when I first scribbled this down, the idea of Lucy and Winn as a couple hadn't entered my mind yet, but I wedged them in anyway because I like them as a couple and after the recent episode with Winn and Lyra I'm pissed at the fact that Winn keeps getting his heart stomped on.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy :=)

******

As it turned out, the alien ‘attack’ had actually been a bunch of alien teenagers throwing rocks, hardly worth the DEO’s time. Astra had summarily chewed out the agent who had reported it as an attack and then declared that NCPD could handle it and Alex had watched, amazed, as two NCPD officers, one of whom was an alien herself, arrived and swiftly arrested the two Kilgori for trespassing and vandalism

“Aliens have been public knowledge for the decade.” Astra explained, Alex nodded, looking around she could see dozens more aliens just…wandering around, many of whom had stopped to gawk and stare at the arrest in progress “you don’t remember that” Astra noted, Alex shook her head

“No, the last I remember, aliens had to hide, stay in the shadows” she explained, Astra nodded

“Not anymore,” she frowned at Alex and then at her watch “come on, let’s get you home” she announced

******

The resulting car ride took them a little ways out of the city, into the suburbs to a nice little two-story craftsman-style house with a lovely, if slightly rambling, garden and an attached garage, Alex could see her Ducati parked in the driveway. The house was painted a nice grey color with white trim and had a lovely winding brick pathway leading down from the porch to split into two, one part lead to the driveway and the other to the sidewalk

“I live…here?” Alex asked, Astra nodded as she pulled the SUV into the driveway and shut off the engine

“You do,” she answered “come on,” she got and lead Alex up onto the porch and unlocked the front door “I’d say ‘make yourself at home’, but considering that you live here…,” she trailed off with a helpless shrug “mind if I use your bathroom?”

“Uh, no, sure, go ahead” Alex answered distractedly as she looked around the living room. The furnishings were simple but cozy looking, a big, plushy comfy-looking couch dominated the room with a low coffee table and two plushy armchairs that matched the couch—probably part of a set Alex thought—while straight across from the front door, past the stairs on the right, was what looked like a combination dinning room/kitchen.

But it was the wall that caught her attention

The wall to the left of the front door was covered with pictures and photographs. Some looked liked they’d been cut out of the newspaper or other magazines and prominently featured pictures of Kara as Supergirl, but there were others too. One was from the cover of CatCo Magazine, and showed an image of Astra holding a seemingly unconscious Kara in her arms, with the headline reading ‘THE DARK ANGEL: CAN WE TRUST HER?’ another featured an image of Kara standing between Astra and Alex herself with the headline this time reading ‘SUPERWOMEN: Supegirl and two mysterious allies stop the criminal known as ‘Metallo’ another was from the cover of _Time_ and featured what looked like a candid shot of Alex and several DEO agents in the midst of a raid, this headline read ‘THE DEO: Agents of the recently declassified government anti-alien black ops team discuss what its like working with Supergirl and encountering aliens on a daily basis’.

Then there were the personal pictures which sat on a long table against the wall

One showed Alex and Astra both standing on either side of a grinning Kara in a wedding dress, a smiling James standing slightly behind them in a tuxedo, another showed Winn and Lucy Lane, both in a tuxedo and a wedding dress respectfully, grinning for the camera as Lucy held two fingers behind Winn’s head in the classic ‘bunny ears’ gag, while Winn did the same to her, another picture right next to that one showed the two of them making faces for the camera.

But it the last picture on the table that had Alex pausing. It had been taken on the beach by her mother’s house in Midvale, two women proudly grinning at the camera like loons as the sea breeze ruffled their wedding gowns, one had her arm thrown up into the air, a bouquet caught in midflight, as she literally jumped for joy, while her partner looked equally as happy, but nowhere near as enthusiastic 

She looked good in white Alex thought numbly as she examined the image of herself leaping for joy

Of course so did Astra

“That was ten years ago,” Alex jumped as Astra’s voice “Kara couldn’t stop crying,” she recalled “of course, neither could Eliza” for a long moment Alex couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, she just stared, looking back and forth between the picture and Astra’s face, barely noticing the sound of the door opening

“Hello? Mom? Mother? Anybody? I’m home!”


	3. The Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex gets another surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update! :=)

******

Alex stared at the newcomer. The teenage girl was about fifteen or so, with long straight dark hair and wide blue eyes. She was dressed in sneakers, dark blue jeans with a rip in one knee, and a camouflage colored t-shirt with ‘Army Chick’ written on it big black letters that was so tight it left a bit of her midriff exposed. The girl cocked a hand on her hip and looked between Alex and Astra

“OK, what’d I do now?” she sighed

“Nothing,” Astra answered, she gave the girl the once over “although we’ll have to have a discussion about that shirt at some point” the girl rolled her eyes, the picture of teenage defiance

“Mother! God!” she exclaimed

“Do _not_ take that tone with me, Artemis!” Astra warned, the girl, Artemis, sighed “sit down” Astra instructed

“I’ve got homework” Artemis countered, even though it was clear to anybody with eyes that she had _no_ intention of doing her homework

“Which means that you’ll lock yourself in your room and spend three hours on Facebook until one of us catches you,” Astra countered “sit down.” she repeated, Artemis huffed and plopped down on the couch “do you remember when I said that your Mom had had an accident?”

“Yeah…what about it?” Artemis asked, now looking between Alex and Astra “oh no,” her eyes widened as she looked at Alex “you don’t….remember me, do you?” she asked, Alex shook her head

“No” she said as Artemis looked back up at Astra, the defiant teenager now replaced by a scared girl

“So…what do we do?” she asked, Astra sighed

“Help her remember,” she explained, she sighed and ran a hand through her hair “you can go now”

“Yeah, sure” Artemis mumbled, standing up and giving Alex a sideways glance as she disappeared up the stairs

“Well, that went better than expected” Astra muttered

“So…,” Alex began “she’s…our daughter”

“Yes”

“And we’re…married”

“Yes”

“I don’t remember any of that”

“I know,” Astra gave her a sad smile “would you like to see more pictures?” she offered “maybe jog something loose?”

Alex could only nod

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta-da and its...not CJ Danvers! I know, but Artemis here would eventually be split into two characters, CJ and Alura, originally, when I was first writing "Family Matters" CJ was the troublemaker and Alura was the 'good kid', but then I thought that it'd be funnier if Kara had to deal with the juvenile delinquent in the making. Anyway, let me know what you thought


	4. Familal Matters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back! Yes "Headspace" is finally being updated! I'm trying to just update at random here, rather than focusing on one story in particular, I'm updating what I feel like updating, so please enjoy :=)

******

Alex spent the next three hours or so looking through photo albums. There were dozens of albums, each with dozens of photos inside.

Alex didn’t recognize the woman in the photos. She’d never seen herself that happy, and with Astra no less. But yet there it was in living color. Entire years worth it seemed all preserved in eight-by-ten glossy for the entire world to see. Pictures of her with Astra, with Kara and who she presumed to be Kara and James’ son, a little boy about nine or ten who was always just slightly behind one of the adults, shyly peeking out at the camera.

There were pictures of her with Winn and Lucy, and of her with a dark-haired little girl about six or so who had bright blue eyes like Lucy’s and Winn’s charming shy grin. There were pictures of Alex with Artemis, which she noticed never went back further than age five or so, there were no pictures of her as an infant, was she adopted possibly? That would make sense, she realized, since she and Astra were different species (not to mention both women) the chances of them being able to produce a child naturally were slim at best.

Finally looking up from the album, she realized that it was well past five in the evening, the sun having sunk low on the horizon, settling the sky ablaze in reds and oranges. As she blinked, Astra idly passed, heading out through what Alex presumed to be a kitchen or den. She heard a door open and the air got cold.

Curious, Alex set the album down and followed the Kryptonian on slightly-stiff knees.

Rounding the corner she found herself in a den/kitchen area. The kitchen—on the right of the doorway—seamlessly blended into a cozy-looking den. Directly opposite the doorway was a pair of French doors leading out to a patio. Standing on said patio, Astra held a plate of steaks in one hand and argued with a large, expensive-looking grill with the other.

Knocking, on the doorframe, Alex cautiously leaned out the door

“You, uh need any help there?” she asked cautiously. She was a terrible cook she knew, but it seemed rude to not at least offer

Astra looked up and snorted

“The day you offer to help me cook, is the day that Kara shaves her head bald,” she chuckled “here,” she held up another plate of what looked like vegetables “you can the cut the vegetables if you want” she offered

Taking the offered plate, Alex set it down on the cutting board attached to the grill and started cutting

“So, I was looking through the photo albums” she began

“And? Remember anything?” Astra asked

“No”

Astra sighed

“Well, it was a long shot anyway,” she scowled, biting her lip nervously “if…if there’s anything you want to ask me, you can” she finally sighed

Alex nodded, deciding on a neutral line of questioning

“You, uh, cooking for a party or something?” she gestured to the grill and Astra’s pile of juicy looking steaks

Astra chuckled

“Sort of,” she nodded “a regular family get together as it were,” she explained “most of them come here, since we’re the ones who the space. We all eat, play some games and just generally enjoy ourselves,” she finally got the grill started with a quiet _whoosh_ “ah. Next question?” she asked as she began to season the steaks

“Why are there no baby pictures of Artemis?”

“Ah,” Astra chuckled “figures you’d notice that. She’s adopted, yes,” she dropped one of the steaks onto the grill with a sizzling _hiss_ “there was some disagreement after her pod came down, but thanks to the Amnesty Act, we were able to adopt her with little problem” she added as she flipped the steak

“Wait, what?” Alex stared at her

“Oh. Right,” Astra scowled, looking like she wanted to kick herself “sorry. Artemis isn’t human, she’s a Daxamite”

“Never heard of them”

“They’re an off-shoot of Kryptonians,” Astra explained “from Krypton’s sister planet of Daxam. When Krypton exploded, the debris rained down Daxam, as near as we can tell, Artemis is the only survivor”

“Sent here like Superman” Alex reasoned

Astra shrugged

“So it would seem,” she shook her head “we don’t really know, there wasn’t anything in the pod that told us about her origins, we only knew she was from Daxam by analyzing the pod’s telemetry. Other than that…,” she trailed off “we don’t even know her birth name” she sighed

“So…if she’s from the same solar system as Krypton, does that mean that she has powers like you and Kara?” Alex wondered, shivering at the idea of a teenager with that much of a rebellious attitude having powers like Kara or Astra. Her own teenage years had been…interesting to say the least, the damage she could have done with Kryptonian powers was frightening

“Thankfully no,” Astra sighed “she has similar levels of speed, strength and invulnerability. But no heat vision, x-ray vision, or flight,” she explained “you theorized that the difference in environment between Krypton and Daxam caused our people to develop similar but different powers. For example, kryptonite doesn’t affect her at all,” she suddenly looked up “which is a shame,” she sighed “since it would come in handy in disciplining her at times. Excuse me” setting down the tongs, she suddenly floated up to the second floor.

Leaning past the overhang and looking up, Alex was treated to the humorous sight of Astra floating there, looking stern, while Artemis leaned out of an upstairs window, clearly having been caught in the midst of trying to sneak out

“Uh…” Artemis tried

“Don’t,” Astra growled “you don’t want to spend time with your family that’s fine, just use the door instead”

“Fine,” teen easily hopped down, landing on the grass with Kryptonian-level of air and grace. Alex silently waited, if Astra was anything like Eliza as a mother then…

“Of course,” Astra called out as she softly landed “don’t forget, your Mom has amnesia right now, she could benefit from your presence here, it might stir her memories loose. But, no, you want to go out, you can go out, that’s fine. Just don’t stay out too late”

She turned back to the grill, seemingly dismissing her daughter

“Aw… _fuck!_ ” Artemis swore “fine,” she groaned, she stalked back onto the patio and sank down into one of the deck chairs there looking sullen “I’ll stay” she huffed

“It’s your choice” Astra shrugged, as if she didn’t care

Alex hid her smirk. Kryptonian guilt, it seem, topped even Jewish guilt…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone's wondering, I'm going on the idea that Artemis is essentially this world's version on Mon-El, scary I know :=)


	5. Nothing Like Norman Rockwell Paintings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update! Enjoy! :=)

******

The steaks finished just as someone knocked on the door. Getting up, Alex opened it to find Kara on the other side

“Hey” she greeted, grinning at her

“Hey!” Kara chirped “sorry, James is busy wrangling Marcus,” she explained as she breezed inside “oh!” she turned to Alex with a frown “you don’t remember Marcus, do you?” she asked

“He’s your son” Alex replied

Kara beamed

“You _do_ remember!” she cheered

“Afraid not,” Alex shook her head “saw the pictures in the photo albums, process of elimination”

“Oh” Kara dimmed, slumping over slightly

“Hey, it’ll take time,” Alex reassured her “I’ve already met my daughter, so maybe meeting Marcus will jar something loose”

Kara winced

“Have she and Astra started screaming at each other yet?” she asked

Alex frowned

“Uh…no,” she blinked “why?”

Kara smiled innocently

“No reason” she sang out as she breezed into the kitchen.

Alex frowned, realizing that Kara had developed something of a sadistic streak over the past decade

“Alex, hey”

Turning, she smiled as James peeked around the door

“James, hi,” she greeted “uh, come on in” she invited

“How are you feeling?” he asked gently as he came in

Alex sighed

“Confused, mostly,” she admitted “I mean, last I remember I was trying to convince Kara to ask you out, and _now_ …,” she gestured to his general form “you’re married and have a kid,” she exclaimed “and I’m… _married_ to my sister’s aunt,” she ran a hand through her hair “I mean I didn’t even know that I, you know, liked women like that”

James chuckled

“Well, that one didn’t come easy,” he explained “see, you were dating this cop for a while—nice woman, bit flaky—anyway, while you were dating her, Astra was pining for you, and you two just kept dancing around each other, until finally, you realized that you loved each other”

“Huh,” Alex mused “how long ago was that?” she wondered

“About…ten, maybe nine, years ago,” James answered “it was kind odd actually, since you’d both essentially adopted and were raising Artemis together, even though you dating someone else at the same time”

“So what happened to this other woman? The cop?” Alex wondered

“You wanted to be a mother and she didn’t” Astra said as she came over. Alex suspected that there was more to the tale than either James or Astra was letting on, but decided to let the matter drop, if she didn’t remember anything else, she’d just ask Astra after everyone else had left, which posed its own set of problems, namely how comfortable she was with Astra, even though from her perspective they were still enemies.

At that moment, a small figure suddenly peeked past James' legs, looking up at Alex and Astra shyly

“Hey, buddy,” James smiled “come on, it’s only your aunt Alex and your aunt Astra” he encouraged

The little boy—presumably Marcus—frowned up at the two grownups and then ducked back behind James

“Sorry,” James apologized “he’s still a little shy”

“That’s fine” Alex smiled, waving at Marcus as he peered out again, before ducking back behind James

“Well,” Astra broke the silence with a far-too wide smile “Lucy and Winn should be arriving shortly. Shall we?”

******

Lucy and Winn and their arrived shortly after everyone else had sat down. Their daughter, a truly _striking_ fourteen year old named ‘Athena’ (apparently Lucy and Winn had wanted to keep with the theme of naming your kid after a Greek goddess), had happily plopped herself down next Marcus and playfully ruffled his curls, and was now proving herself to be exceedingly witty and sharp as a tack.

She had Lucy’s looks and confidence, and Winn’s brains and charm, making Alex certain that she’d be leaving a trail of broken hearts—if she wasn’t already—in her wake once she got to collage.

“So, Alex,” Athena began “how’re you feeling?” she asked, flashing a grin much like Winn’s at Alex, which with Lucy’s features was startling to say the least

“Uh…I’m good,” Alex answered awkwardly “not great. But good”

Athena seemed pleased with the answer and turned to Marcus

“Hey kiddo,” she grinned “you need some help there?” she asked as Marcus tried to eat his entire steak in one bite

“Oh,” Kara snorted “come on, sweetie, here” she took the knife and fork and began to gently help him cut the steak into smaller bite-sized pieces

“Where’s Artemis?” Winn wondered

Astra grimaced and stood up suddenly with air of finality, as if she had finally had enough of something

“I’ll go get her” she growled out in a tone that meant business

“No yelling, Marcus doesn’t like yelling” Kara called out after her as she rounded the corner and audibly stomped up the stairs. There was a pounding sound, like Astra was angrily pounding on the door and then what sounded like a muffled argument.

Alex looked up at the ceiling watching as everyone else sitting around the table seemed to deflate

“And there they go” James sighed as the argument got louder and louder

“I DON’T CARE!!!” Astra suddenly bellowed “WE ARE A FAMILY! NOW YOU GET DOWN THERE THIS INSTANT!!!!!”

A door slammed and someone stomped down the stairs, a tired and drained-looking Astra suddenly rounding the corner

“She’s not coming down” she announced quietly as she took her seat…

******

After dinner, James and Kara commandeered the media center and watched some kids show with Marcus, while Lucy, Winn and their daughter helped clean up. Alex, not really sure what else to do, pitched in and was washing dishes when Astra came over to her, looking crestfallen

“I’m sorry about Artemis’ behavior,” she apologized “she’s not normally like this, just lately, she's--”

“Hey, you don’t have to explain,” Alex smiled “I was a teenager once, I get it, I do. She’ll come around eventually,” she frowned “why do I get the impression that I’ve said that lots of times?” she wondered

“Because you have,” Astra replied with a soft smile, which was strange to see on the woman who, from Alex’s perspective, had held her up off the ground by her _neck_ a few hours ago “did dinner jog any memories loose?” Astra wondered suddenly

“It did,” Alex nodded “but just ones from my own teenage years”

Astra sighed

“Damn it,” she hissed, she looked tired Alex noted, scared even. And it hit her suddenly that, for all intents and purposes, Astra had just lost her wife, and Artemis had lost one of her mothers, considering the suddenness and severity of her condition, the Alex Danvers they knew might as well have been dead.

Astra looked up her, glowering suddenly

“Will you _stop_ looking at me like that?!” she hissed

“Like what?” Alex asked, confused

“Like this is all some kind of trick, like I’m still that madwoman who wanted Humanity to kneel at her feet,” Astra hissed. She grabbed Alex’s hand and held it up, the sliver ring with the small ruby on her finger glinting in the light “ _this_ is who I am now,” Astra pleaded “your wife, the woman who loves you, the woman who wants you back”

She dropped Alex’s hand and turned away

“I’ll set up the couch for you once Kara and James leave” she mumbled as she sadly shuffled out of the room.

Leaving Alex to ponder off the fickle thing known as Fate…


End file.
